


The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

by IsilmeLasgalen



Series: The story isn't over and it is not the end. [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dean Winchester is Ben Braeden's Parent, Gen, Jack Kline is a Winchester, POV Ben Braeden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-26
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21571528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsilmeLasgalen/pseuds/IsilmeLasgalen
Summary: It was a little late for dinner but who was Ben to judge, it was a little early for getting drunk too and it hasn't stopped him from trying.
Relationships: Ben Braeden & Dean Winchester, Ben Braeden & Lisa Braeden & Dean Winchester, Castiel & Claire Novak, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Lisa Braeden & Dean Winchester
Series: The story isn't over and it is not the end. [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1545316
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Supernatural.
> 
> // means dialogue.

Ben drowned the shot, a grimace on his face as he slammed the glass on the bar. Drinking was apparently part of the job description, he had not known that when he had first hit the road. Hunters went to bars to blend in and get information. Drunk people talked, they trusted and they most often than not forgot you by morning. Hunters drank to forget, to cope... To make the memories and the nightmares and the guilt go away. And sometimes they drank because they wanted to peace even for one night. He raised his hand to catch the attention of the bartender.

/So... Noah, have you noticed anything weird around here lately? You know, people acting strange or new people in town? Flashing lights, temperature changes... Earthquakes?/

/Kid, this is a small town in Kansas, the only weird thing around here is the amount of alcohol the Campbells can consume without dropping dead./

/So, no? Absolutely nothing?/

/That's what I just said./

Around six months ago there had been a strange wave of energy that all psychics, witches and weekend magic users felt. Demons screamed and left their hosts. Angels cried in their real voices, destroying everything around them and leaving people deaf. There had been storms and earthquakes and tsunamis and floods and volcanic eruptions all over the world. It had been the Apocalypse 2.0. And then just as it had started in an instant, hours later it ended the same way. 

Ben hadn't been a hunter for that long but he had heard rumours, stories told in hushed voices, of the time when Lucifer rose from Hell and him and his brother Michael were getting ready to have The Fight. So he knew that whatever had the power to cause such a disturbance had to have been Big. It took him a while but he managed to find a town in Kansas that seemed to have been completely untouched by what appeared to be the second coming of the apocalypse. Kind of like the eye of the storm... Exactly like the eye of the storm. So he just had to investigate.

Ben hadn't been raised into the hunter life, not like many of the others he had met. His mother was a yoga instructor, one that probably still thought he would change his mind about college one day and settle down and had no idea monsters were real. His father, poor bastard, probably still believed Ben was the son of some random biker that died in a ditch somewhere, his mother had made sure of that.

He remembered the first time he had met the man, he had been so much better than Ben had imagined. Before that he used to dream of his dad coming for him, of driving lessons and movie nights. Of course, once mom found out what his day job was, Ben was the son of a biker she had met in a bar. As if he hadn't grown up to stories of knights in muscle cars who loved classic rock and leather jackets that destroyed evil and then disappeared into the night. And there has never been a biker in that story until his mom found out how dangerous the night her saviour had disappeared in really was. Ben even as a child had not been stupid. For some reason his mother wanted to pretend the man hadn't fathered him, fine, he could keep his mouth shut if it made her feel safer. He got presents mailed from random cities and phone calls on his birthday and it was more than he had before, it was fine. His mom was happy and that had made Ben happy.

When his dad had showed up on their doorstep years later, looking as if he had been through hell, Ben still said nothing. He still didn't know why his mom took the man in when she had tried so hard to keep him away before but Ben wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The guy had drank too much and slept too little and Ben would wake up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and find him in the living room, wasted near to death and praying to someone named Castiel. Wasn't it wrong to swear while praying? Never mind. Ben had looked it up and while he could not find Castiel he did find an angel Cassiel. The angel, or archangel according to some, so either way probably very powerful, was a guardian of one of Hell's gates. He had power over lighting and wind, was the angel of tears and solitude and temperance. He was a fierce warrior, he ruled over the moon and was some kind of captain in Heaven's army. All in all it had made sense. His dad was praying to a badass, Ben could dig that. If you looked passed the drinking, nightmares and arsenal in his trunk the guy was great. He had taught Ben how to fix cars and took him to all the movies he was not supposed to see at that age. He had told Ben of all kinds of monsters and how to kill them and also how not all of them were bad. He had great taste in music and the best sense of humour and the guy could cook. It had been great to pretend they were a happy little family, though Ben knew there had been nothing between his dad and his mom. They loved him and they had loved each other but they had not been in love. At least he had never caught them having sex, there was an upside to that.

All good things end though and the moment they were pushed past the threshold of Bobby Singer's house Ben had known that so did the best year of his life. It hadn't been long after that that they had to move, and then his dad was back on the road, back into the family business and then his parents were broken up. Ben had been desperate enough to even try the parent trap trick on them, it didn't work though and his mom had a new boyfriend and his dad was gone, ...again.

It was when the demons showed up, when he was tied up in an abandoned building, terrified out of his mind that it had finally dawned on him who his dad was and what he did and it had made him angry. What the hell was the guy thinking, putting them in danger like that? When it had all been done and over and his mom had been dying on a hospital bed and his relationship with his father had been well and truly destroyed and a stranger told him he could make it all go away Ben had been distressed enough to say yes. He remembered that emotionless face, the warm hand on his forehead, the beautiful blue eyes too bright to be human and too gentle to fit on the man's stony face. Ben hadn't even asked his name before he forgot everything and woke up feeling like something tore a hole in his soul. It hadn't hurt but it had felt like a limb that went numb, like pins and needles. 

Ben had been fifteen and two years had passed since the car accident when it had happened. The meteor shower. The fall of the angels. He had been on the roof, watching the stars, unable to sleep when he had heard the cry in his head. A desperate cry for help. He had said yes having no idea what he was agreeing to but the pain had been so sharp that he simply couldn't abandon anyone to die like that. So he said yes and suddenly he hadn't been alone in his head anymore. Her name had been Ariel. Ariel who hadn't tried to take control of his body and had left once she was healed enough to do so. Ariel who insisted she was a healer, not a fighter. Who had told him of the state of Heaven, of the wars and the Apocalypse. Of the lock she could feel in his mind, on his memories. It took months for the memories to come back slowly as she healed them both and he didn't know if it made him love his dad or hate him more for what he had done. It had been Castiel, Ariel had told him, that erased his memories, the angel his father had prayed to every night, it hadn't been hard to deduce who had wanted him to forget. Ariel had left not long after that, to hide or return to Heaven she hadn't said. She told him to be careful before she left, that angels would slaughter cities for a vessel of his bloodline and put protections on his ribs to hide him. Apparently that was how Castiel hid his dad from archangels so it should work for him too. So Ben was left alone, aware of the monsters in the dark, with no way to fight them and too many questions to count. 

He could have searched for his dad but by the time he had wrapped his head around what was going on Ben hadn't wanted to do that. His dad had left to keep him safe. In spite of all the man's faults and all that was said between them before they parted the man had loved him and did what he knew best to keep him safe. Ben hadn't wanted him to stop saving the world just to come back and do what? Train Ben? Reassure him that everything was alright when they both knew what was out there? Have his memories erased again? Ben hadn't wanted any of that so he trained himself. He got a job and bought all the books he could find that sounded even a little bit accurate. He got people to teach him how to fight and use knives and fire guns. Shady people that worried his mom but it had to be done. So when he turned eighteen he had packed a bag, got in his car and hit the road. His mom had been livid, she didn't understand and he hadn't want her to because that would have meant telling her about all the monsters out there and he didn't want that.

He would have loved to have a normal life but people like Ben didn't get to have normal lives. His knowledge wouldn't let him and his bloodline was not something he could ever get rid of, one way or another something would find him and drag him back, just as Ariel had. He could at least make the best of what he had and save a few people along the way. He never looked for his dad, though he did keep his ear on the ground for stories of him. And stories he had heard, at least the man had not left them for nothing.

Ben took a deep breath and shook the memories away, getting ready to continue interrogating the bartender when a hot blonde around his age sat next to him, putting her beer down and slipping her hand into his leather jacket, coming out with his fake F.B.I. badge, it had the name of his favourite AC/DC singer on it and the smile on her face was tiny but fond. She said nothing as she dragged him towards the door. Hell, her grip was tight for someone who looked like Barbie in a biker outfit. He ripped his arm free and led her through the parking lot. Whoever she was she knew at least that his badge was fake and Ben had met enough hunters to know the look in their eyes. She glared at him and Ben could swear he'd seen those eyes before but he was sure they had never, ever met. She had a face he would remember, a body too. ...Oh shit! What if he had been that drunk?! It's not like he was a saint and only slept with people he loved, he's had a lot of one night stands. He debated with himself what to do before leading her to his baby. He was too tired to fight or run and there was still a part of him that found the look on her face too familiar. It wouldn't be the first time he met another hunter that just wanted to help. After all he was still friends with the twins. He opened the door to his black 1980 Chevrolet C10 as she eyed the car, her head tilted to the side just a little before she climbed into the passenger seat and he started pulling out of the parking lot, turning on the radio. AC/DC's T.N.T. blared out. She burst out laughing.

/Where to?/

/Start going towards the woods. Our base is that way. I will tell you when to stop./

He drove slowly, he had survived the supernatural even when he didn't remember it was there, he was not dying because he drove his car into a tree because he was tired. It gave him time to think as well. Lebanon was a small town, a really really small town in pretty much the center of the country, it was ideal for a hunter base and yet he had never heard of it before. He had always known there were places, safe houses that hunters used when in need. Some gone and some still standing. There were plenty of people in the know, from sheriffs to shop keepers, from strippers to modern aristocracy. Humans and supernaturals alike. Ben liked to think he was open minded and unlike his dad he didn't have bone deep trust issues and sky high paranoia. He talked to people, knew which places were safe and which to avoid. For example Lily Dale was annoying but could be helpful and you always needed to be careful in Chicago. But he had never ever heard of Lebanon Kansas from anyone in the know. This was either a temporary base they would abandon once the case was over or blondie next to him was more powerful and better connected than he had anticipated if they could stay off the radar without anyone, even their own people, finding their base.

They were pretty far out of town when she made him pull over by an abandoned building. It was huge and gray and it looked a hundred years old, there was something about it that made the hair on the back of his neck rise. The door looked barely safe but it turned out it only led to stairs going down towards another better protected door, locked by both magic and technology that blondie, Claire she finally introduced herself, opened as if she had done it a million times before. A permanent base then, no one went through so much trouble if they planned to leave in a week. He was surprised to realise they were going deeper underground instead of up as the building had implied, how paranoid were these people? 

The place looked more like a home than a base. There were maps and weapons lying around and open books of lore on the tables, yes, but there was a warmth to the room... Picture on the shelves far away, a little stuffed toy on a chair and a play pen in the corner of the room as far away from anything dangerous as possible. He could hear babbling from the room Claire was dragging him towards and the closer they got the clearer it became that there was a baby in there. Or maybe a toddler. He didn't know much about children and his youngest cousin had long ago started talking but he thought it couldn't be very old. What was Claire thinking bringing a stranger home? Was it her baby? What if Ben turned out to be a psychopath, what would she do then?

The kitchen was big, it was the first thing he noticed. Well equipped and clean and it looked a little... Off. Old and modern all at once. There was a man by a stove, quietly talking to the baby on his hip in a grave low voice about the delicious food they were making. It was a little late for dinner but who was Ben to judge, it was a little early for getting drunk too and it hasn't stopped him from trying. It was when the man turned to face them, Claire's name on his lips and the baby got louder and waved his arms at her that it clicked. They had the same eyes, they looked so much alike and Ben finally understood why she had been familiar. Because the man in front of him was not a man at all, it was Castiel. Ben would never forget him, not again. He had half a mind to bail, to run and never look back because he knew, he knew what would happen next. And when he heard steps behind him, before he was turned away from the shocked angel and the smirking smug blonde, Ben realised she knew too. He closed his eyes, as if he could avoid the inevitable, but the voice he heard was one he had longed to hear again for so long and thought he never would.

/Ben.../

/Hi, dad./

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently Castiel isn't in the Bible, which I had no idea before. According to Wikipedia though the angel Cassiel is a total badass.😁
> 
> Binge watching Supernatural made me a Destiel fan. Though at times Dean needs to get his head out of Sam's ass, honestly, and see what is in front of him.
> 
> Destiel is definitely Canon as far as I'm concerned.


End file.
